Britain: Square-Toe Debacle

Britain’s hardworking, high-living Charles Clore, 58, has built an empire since 1953 out of ships, manufacturing, real estate and shoes. But the cockney-born, self-made Midas turns out to have an Achilles’ heel—or toe. Last week, announcing a 4% profit drop in 1962 for his huge, seven-company British Shoe Corp., Clore blamed the loss partly on what he called “the square-toe debacle.”

British Shoe, said Clore, had followed what appeared to be a trend away from the pointed-toe, stiletto-heel shoe toward the lower heel and square tip that became briefly popular in the U.S. and on the Continent. But in England hardly anybody bought them, and stiff-uppered British Shoe was left with an inventory estimated to be as high as 200,000 pairs. Clore blamed the loss on British fashion writers, charged them with marching into the square toe at the head of a nonexistent army.

Not so, bristled the fashion writers. The trend was there all right, they insisted, but cautious, turtle-paced British Shoe had not moved fast enough to catch it. “The truth is,” said London Daily Mirror Woman’s Editor Felicity Green, “that you stocked square toes too late. Mr. Clore.” Fashionata Green even offered Clore a look at next season’s shoe styles—low heels, high vamps, crescent-shaped toes. So far, few British Shoe stores appear to be stocking the style of the future. For one thing, the company was still worried about fashion writers. For another, it has recently completed a modernization program, now hopes to be able to catch up with style changes only six weeks after they hit.